As much as I dislike having to do it, I have to use proprietary drivers
in order to have a working system (Ubuntu 7.04). I have an Nvidia card
(sorry, I'm a gamer, that's not going to change), I have large numbers
of MP3s and proprietary media formats (AVI, MPEG, even WMV).
Unfortunately I've had problems with Ubuntu's nvidia-glx-new driver,
while the binary driver from Nvidia works well. This sucks, but it's
also reality -- and how free am I to get work/play done when I have to
reinstall the driver constantly and spend hours per day in fiddling with
my xorg.conf?
*I* didn't rip all these files into proprietary formats, someone else
did. When I rip a CD it is to OGG or FLAC. But to tell people they
shouldn't be able to watch any of their movies or listen to their music
is just not realistic, *at this point*, even if our ultimate goal is
software freedom for all.
I agree with RMS that the aim of GNU and the FSF is not the commercial
success of "Linux," but rather promoting freedom. It is our duty to do
just that, but not so zealously that people have to suffer an awful
end-user experience because, unfortunately, many drivers just aren't
open ("our" devs will eventually reverse-engineer them, we know that).
But let's face it -- most of us are selfish when it comes to computing.
We want our stuff to work, we want our media to play and we want stable
systems. And unfortunately all of the above require me to use
proprietary drivers and formats *for the time being.* To say that
GNU/FSF hasn't made great strides in underscoring the importance of
software freedom just isn't true. We just haven't won yet.
We haven't reached the ultimate goal, true freedom, with GNU/Linux or
any other OS (I'm also a proponent of the idea that the average end user
should *not* be using a UNIX-like OS, which should generate a goodly
amount of flames :D ) but we are definitely making progress.
And Ubuntu GNU/Linux is a popular distro, it's getting new people
involved and, because we don't stop advocating freedom and we don't stop
emphasizing the importance of it we will eventually win. We can't wipe
out proprietary software for good (I just don't think it's realistic)
but we *can* and have made people realize that DRM, TC and other
technologies designed to limit us are hurtful and intolerable.
These people are learning, understanding, and eventually they will
become proponents of freedom as well. But you can't just slam people
right into hardcore no-closed-code-allowed systems when half their stuff
might not work, especially if they're n00bers who are terrified of the CLI.
I make it a point to swap out proprietary "blobs" that I'm using
whenever possible. But unfortunately some of our open software just
hasn't effectively replaced the proprietary stuff -- when it does, I
will convert to the free bits. Let's hope someday this won't even be a
concern; but for the time being it remains one.
Regards,
Casey Hendley
FSF Member #5288
_______________________________________________
Advocate mailing list
[email protected]
http://badvista.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/advocate
